World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseIn Sep 1940, through the Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, US gained rights to the land upon which the air base Edinburgh Field was built in Trinidad. It was completed in 1942. It had originally been intended only as an overflow facility for Air Transport Command transport aircraft headed for nearby Waller Field, but it would eventually grow into a full airfield in its own right, possessing three parallel paved runways 5,000 feet by 150 feet, 5,000 feet by 150 feet, and 2,000 feet by 300 feet in dimensions, one of which was generally used only during emergencies. In Nov 1943, it was renamed Carlsen Field. Officially a US Army base and hosted mostly bombers, it was also home to a number of US Navy fighters and airships (since the fall of of 1943) and British Royal Air Force aircraft. After the war, the based was reduced to a skeleton crew, and it was placed under the command of the 24th Composite Wing based at Borinquen Field in Puerto Rico. In 1947 Navy C-47 operations at Waller were moved to Carlsen. In Mar 1948, it was renamed Carlsen Air Force Base, and two months later it was transferred to the US Navy. The US Navy operated Carlsen as a naval fuel annex and an airship base. In Jan 1950, the base was decommissioned. Today, farms and residential neighborhoods can be found on the land formerly occupied by Edinburgh/Carlsen; the Edinburgh neighborhood and a street by the same name, and the street by the name of Xeres, are named after the two primary runways of the WW2-era base.

Carlsen Field Interactive Map

Photographs

Carlsen Field Timeline